Yesterday, we noted that the Sun-Times editorial board defended Barack Obama's relationship with Bill Ayers back in early March when Fox News and various right-wing radio hosts were attempting to make hay of the issue. The Sun-Times rightly noted that since his radical days as a leader of the Weather Underground in the 1970s, Ayers has "followed in the footsteps of the great Chicago social worker Jane Addams, crusading for education and juvenile justice reform."

In the 36 hours or so since Obama was asked about Ayers during Tuesday night's debate, several other prominent Chicago voices have lambasted the purported controversy, speaking out about the Ayers that this city knows. Most notably, Mayor Richard Daley released the following statement yesterday:

There are a lot of reasons that Americans are angry about Washington politics. And one more example is the way Senator Obama’s opponents are playing guilt-by-association, tarring him because he happens to know Bill Ayers.

I also know Bill Ayers. He worked with me in shaping our now nationally-renowned school reform program. He is a nationally-recognized distinguished professor of education at the University of Illinois/Chicago and a valued member of the Chicago community.

I don’t condone what he did 40 years ago but I remember that period well. It was a difficult time, but those days are long over. I believe we have too many challenges in Chicago and our country to keep re-fighting 40 year old battles.

The Tribune editorial board also came to Ayers' defense this morning:

Ah, we know Ayers too. And his wife, Bernardine Dohrn. If you know people in Chicago academic circles, chances are you know Ayers and Dohrn.

They have not been repentant about their days in the radical, anti-war movement in the 1960s and their time fleeing federal authorities. They should be. There is still time for them to be.

But they have done good work in Chicago—Ayers at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Dohrn at Northwestern University Law School's Children and Family Justice Center.

So we're going to side with Mayor Richard Daley on this one.

(More after the jump ...)

A Washington Post article also quoted various colleagues of Ayers':

"It's kind of laughable for people who have worked with Bernadine and Bill in the most boring and mundane settings and recognize that they're absolutely upstanding establishment citizens today," said Lawrence C. Marshall, a Stanford University law professor. He recalled a juvenile justice project: "Judges who were lifelong ardent conservatives had no trouble recognizing that the work that Bernadine and Bill are now doing is completely divorced from anything in their background." [...]

Stanley Fish, a former university dean who worked with Ayers, recalled eclectic gatherings at their home. The guests "might be academics, they might be people working in the city in a variety of ways, they might be corporate management people," he said. "There was no sense of a party line or a particular ideology that was necessary to be invited."

Further, the Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet devoted her column to the issue today, providing some important context regarding the local media's treatment of Obama's relationship with Ayers:

But it was ABC News' George Stephanopoulos who pressed Obama in the debate to explain why his association with Ayers would not be an issue if he were the Democratic presidential nominee.

For Obama, perhaps a problem, because of Ayers' extremist past -- which has never bothered anyone in Chicago. That's why back in the day when Obama was starting his political career -- making a visit to the Ayers home while running for a state Senate seat, and then agreeing to being on panels with him and serve on a foundation board together -- it was no big deal, or any deal, to any local political reporters or to the editorial boards of the Sun-Times or Tribune.